Just the other day, we were just talking about Halloween. Now, people are starting to line up their New Year’s resolutions. Amid a hectic schedule at work and home, few things can sneak up like the end of the year. It shouldn’t. But, it does.
We may not be able to slow down the race of time, but when you put a plan in place for your end-of-year routines, it won’t matter if it sneaks up.
Don’t wait until it’s too late — there’s no better time to start deciding if and how your company will celebrate the holidays next year than right now. I know it sounds crazy with the holidays just passed, but you’ll need time to figure out the logistics, consult with your leadership teams, and prepare for next year.
Set yourself up for success now so your tribe can reap the benefits when the end-of-year hustle starts to ramp up next October. To help you start thinking about that, here’s a recap of the articles where we covered our internal end-of-year strategy here at PatelOKC.
Creeping it real on Halloween
Let’s face it; it’s a little creepy for adults to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Don’t be that person. While it can be fun for parents to help their kids dress up, some people are still young at hearts. They want to enjoy the thrill of having a reason to dress up for Halloween.
You can give your tribe a safe place for them to harness their creativity. What better place to practice honing their creative skills than at the office and with their teammates? Along the way, they’ll grow closer together through the shared experiences the opportunity to celebrate Halloween can bring.
Sound like something that’ll benefit your tribe? Get details on creative ways to celebrate next Halloween.
Be a-maize-ing on Thanksgiving
Your employees are in the trenches each day. They deal with negative clients and challenging projects. Through it all, they’re passionate about moving your business forward.
When you’re passionate about what you do for a living, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day. There’s no better time than Thanksgiving to change the narrative. Facilitate a time and place for your employees to share stories that had the most positive impact on them for the year.
Then, you can take it to the next level by letting your actions speak louder than words.
It’s no secret that your employees have loved ones they’d like to spend time with over the holidays. Yet, many leaders tend to only give their employees the bare minimum number of days off over Thanksgiving. When everyone wants to be somewhere else, productivity hits rock bottom.
I’d rather give them the time they need to spend with their loved ones, so they can come back from the holiday recharged and ready to go.
What could this look like at your company? Start mulling around ideas for your next Thanksgiving.
Sleigh it on Christmas
There will always be negative people to deal with and challenging projects to cause stress. Coming off the reflection of your blessings with loved ones over Thanksgiving, Christmas is a great time to take action on that with your tribe.
Give back the joy of the season to those less fortunate in your community. It’s always a good idea to put things in perspective — a missed email, a stressful meeting or technology that only seems to work when it wants to — none of that compares to not knowing where your next meal is coming from.
Get a bit of perspective on the bigger picture and help do some good in your community along the way.
Want more tips for next Christmas? Check out the Christmas article.
Don’t drop the ball on New Year’s
The flurry of holidays at the end of the year get capped by the celebrations on New Year’s Eve to ring in the new year. With only a week apart, it’s hard to separate Christmas and New Year’s. Many leaders dance around an awkward schedule of giving a couple days for Christmas and then a couple days off for New Year’s.
There’s usually a weekend somewhere in there, too, meaning the work week between Christmas and New Year’s is often two or three days.
Then you have to ask yourself how much work is getting done on those “work days” between Christmas and New Year’s? Between use-or-lose and regular vacation time, a good portion of your company could be out of the office. Will projects move forward in their absence? Are you sacrificing quality of work just to keep the office open?
I’ve always tried my best to reward my team’s hard work preparing for the end-of-year by giving them ample time off. For my tribe that means the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s. The extra time off over Thanksgiving and between Christmas and New Year’s assures my entire tribe is rested and ready to hit the ground running by the time January 2nd rolls around.
Now it’s your turn
You don’t need to start making decisions right away, but the earlier you can start formulating ideas the better prepared you’ll be for next year’s end-of-year holiday rush. How do you handle New Year’s or any of the other end-of-year holidays at your company? Let me know in the comments below or by connecting on social.